cats in your house
by shannaros
Summary: we all say bye-bye to the sky.- Sasuke/Sakura, Sasuke/Ino, Sasuke/Karin. [ON HIATUS]
1. lawn knives

**title: lawn knives**

**disclaimer: disclaimed.**

**n1: dedicated to Stover and frangasmic and applebugs for all their wonderful words.**

**n2: rube goldberg. i wish you'd never invented those stupid machines. argh, fanfiction. won't let me space shit out. so now, instead of my attempt-at-cool-spacing you get periods. joy.**

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/"I can't do this...can I?/" Hinata? It's nothing-; please, go and get some rest./ "I'll just throw it in the trash. It won't do any harm there. Yeah, it can't hurt anyone there…"/

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_When I saw it around, I ignored it. Until the exact moment my hatred boiled over. It's never good to hold in your feelings- don't I know that now. But, I was always better at helping others than helping myself. I was so unselfish that I began the most selfish person I'd ever known._

_Though, I'm not sorry. _

_You really did deserve it._

_and so did you- and you- and me. _

_We all deserved it. playing god's just not going to fly when it comes to living your life and ending your life-andtakingandstealingandjust- forget it. We don't need to be told any of this shit- we already fucking know don't we?_

_Perhaps the four of us... we just had a moment...fuck. I fucked up. I had a moment._

_I started this._

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_i: __**LAWN KNIVES**_

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It was a small doll, nothing too unusual or out of the ordinary. Straw body, a bright string scarf and a pair of beady black eyes. She weighed it in her hands; hard to believe that this, this small little child's plaything, has the potential to damn someone's eternal soul. But suppose found it did, suppose that if she were to pull the string that the object of her hatred would vanish, without a trace, without a sound, only to be seen again after they'd both tangled with Death/.

_What if?_

Sakura sat in the small space that she had allotted to her desktop along with her textbooks, rolling the straw toy between her elegant fingers, her eyes trained onto the glare of her lit screen.

She hadn't meant anything by going onto the site, honestly, she really hadn't. She might have been angry and confused yes-_of course-she saw red_, but she wasn't a psychopath. Sakura didn't want anything to do with this.

Not this. Not that. Not the doll.

Though, perhaps to an extent she was aware of this. She couldn't have been completely ignorant to the chills that had run up her spine as she first heard of the web address, or of the aura so cold that it brushed her cheek as she accessed the site. Oh, Sakura knew, she had to know. The girl was simply a manifestation of that knowledge.

Damn; she didn't want this. Not a single strand of it. Forget her expectations for this. Forget what she'd thought might happen or what might never happen, or what grey area may lay in-between-Sakura was more focused on why the girl had believed her to desperate to confine of a particular soul to utter damnnation.

The door opened slightly, sending light into the otherwise near black room and a head poked in. Sakura hid the doll behind her back. She didn't know who it was, but honestly, it didn't really matter. Anyone who came, whether it was for a question, to tell her to sleep, anyone at _all, _and saw that doll would ask questions. Questions that she did not want to hear.

Pale green eyes flicked up to the door, nervous and anxious at first, but they calmed as she saw that it was only Hinata. The light reflected off the sleek violet of the nervous young woman, lighting up her pale skin. Her voice was soft and her unnerved eyes averted away from Sakura, [could she see that something was the matter? Sakura certainly could] she had merely come to request that the pink haired girl get some sleep.

They did have class in the morning after all.

A brief thanks was given and she had to work to turn off her computer while keeping the straw toy behind her back as Hinata was, and still, standing in her doorframe. The blue-tinged-grey light faded from the room, leaving only a small red dot to flicker and leave a halo of color on the wall opposite it.

A small _good night_ came from Hinata's lips and the door began to close, and close, and close until only a small sliver of light could be seen from inside the room. This light, although it was small, illuminated the path it carved, the path over Sakura's eyes and the doll she currently held over her face.

She should feel scared; terrified and disturbed that she potentially carried the fate of someone's soul in her hands. Afraid of the consequences of taking a divine decision into her own hands if she were to lose her good will and common sense.

But, in all reality, she didn't. She didn't fear the repercussion of divine judgment, _no-no-no-no,_ what she feared was why she wanted to do it. Sakura had never felt the urge to cause someone pain, to snatch their hopes and dreams from beneath their feet.

At least, not until now.

Her fingers closed around the doll, pulling it to her chest, feeling the prickle of the straw prod into her chest. It stung slightly, just slightly and as Sakura felt her green eyes slipping into slumber, the prickles dug deeper into her.

A small drip of crimson fell from the deep stab.

[she's sorry].

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.[or she will be]

The morning. It wasn't anything new, at least it _shouldn't have been. _But it was. Sunrise stank with the fumes of a grim novelty of the day and as Sakura awoke, her nose crinkled, confused as to why her skin was crawling. The small red dot of her computer power sign flickered on the opposite wall, appearing and reappearing and she chose to ignore the red while her she took in her surroundings. Her green walls surrounded the soft mass of purples and blues that made up her bed and blankets. Littered across the floor were various styles and sizes of shoes while a silk jacket sat carelessly on the back of her chair. Ino's makeup still lined all the surfaces near or attached to a mirror.

Nothing had changed.

So why did her brain expect to see the walls melt away, only to be replaced by fumes and flames?

Sakura swung her feet over the side of her bed and felt a small prickle at her feet. Her eyes slid downwards, her normally pretty face going a morbid grey as she felt straw from an arm poking her in the ankle. [_it couldn't be- it didn't have to be- please don't_-]

The doll.

What happened at midnight was not dream.

She'd hoped it had been.

If it had been then, it might've meant that she wasn't as horrid as she thought herself to be. Perhaps she wasn't as putrid as that thing said she was.

She picked up the object, gently brushing down the bristles, shivering at the oozing chill that began to run down her spine once contact had been made. Perhaps it was fear, perhaps it was desire or instinct, but whatever it was, it frightened her and Sakura couldn't help but fling the object to her dresser, giving a relieved sigh as it landed near the base of the mirror.

Hopefully it would stay there.

Weight lifted off her shoulders as it lost contact with the pale flesh of her hand, and subconsciously, Sakura's hand came up to rest on her hear as she gave a sigh of relief. Her innocence was safe for the moment.

The screen on her pretty-in- pink iPhone came to life, the tinkling jingles of her ringtone sending a jolt up her spine. Glancing down at it, her breath came out in a soft sigh of relief; it was only Ino- more than likely calling about their usual routine of coffee, sub route A-17, and of course, the short walk to campus in which they would discuss Sakura's latest advancements in the relationship she shared with Sasuke.

Sakura answered the phone, and within seconds, confirmed her assumption and with that the pink child began to prepare to leave, grabbing her bag, books and phone before rushing out the door, hoping to leave all trace of the straw doll behind.

She could- and would-get rid of it later.


	2. her hollow ways

**title: her hollow ways**

**disclaimer: disclaimed**

**n1: dedicated to ZeConfusedNewbie and Nayuki-Bunny**

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/"Where's the blonde?"/the lipstick stains on the Styrofoam cups/'can't you look here instead?"/ festering hatred of mathematics./ that sensation of 'something's wrong, but you just don't know what's wrong./ It's not you. It's them./

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_train wreck. spinning train wreck that was my life. Oh God, I hated you- I hated all of you. I was the closest to Heaven, yet the furthest down into Hell and everything in between. I was a bullet with butterfly wings and damn-_

_wasn't anything going to stop me._

_Oh, you thought you were so clever, fuck, so clever. So prodigal and so smart and wanted and desired and soDAMNclever._

_People can only take so much tension._

_A thought: you made me and you know it. You made me. and made them and you and fuck, you put us in this pit. _

_you made us all._

_we're sitting between these four whiteblackredblackwhite walls together-forever._

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_ii:__** HER HOLLOW WAYS**_

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Flashes of red wove between the trees on the campus grounds, pale flecks of skin dotting the landscape as a girl briskly walked through the November chill to attend her first class of the morning. The hems of her high waisted shorts brushed against the shrubbery-they were against dress code, but honestly, everything the girl did or wore or said was against some kind of code.

Karin couldn't give a royal fuck.

Her crimson eyes darted around the campus grounds as she stepped from out of the trees, searching for her closest friends, focusing mainly on their typical spot by the fountain. A spot of pink tilted over a book gave Sakura away and the red head moved over to her childhood friend with a pace only fit for a crimson princess.

The heels of her floral highs crunched the dead, fallen leaves that dressed the ground and as Karin sat on the stony fountain aside her friend, her eyes aimed up at the high shrubs of campus-admiring the Earth's own high waists.

Sakura made no indication that she was even aware of Karin's presence, but then again, she never really did. Sakura had grown accustomed to Karin being everywhere- _literally, everywhere- _that as soon as a flash of red hair, or breath coming out of Karin's mouth touched her, she was immediately aware of her redheaded friend's presence.

It made all those years of passing out in her room late at night worth it.

Blondie wasn't in sight; probably running late from detaching her lips from her doggy boy toy. Another slight glance to Sakura was sent, but this time, nothing was given back to her in return.

She didn't know?

Karin's face showed nothing more than her immediate shock-; Pinks and Blondie were _one, _their arms were always interlaced, eyes locked and gossip forever shared. On more than one occasion, she'd been convinced they were lesbians and were secret lovers, but time and time again, they'd assured her-_they were just friends._

She still had her suspicions though.

But, still- if Sakura didn't know where Ino was...? Did that mean that Ino had solemnly sworn to be up to no good?

Wind blew the two tones of red that the girls called hair and more of that November chill flooded Karin's open mouth, filling her words with crisp concern.

The look that followed confirmed her thoughts.

Where was Ino?

She knew, well they both knew really, that only mischief made Ino vanish off the face of the known, civilized world like this. And that mischief must be fantastically large if she was to abandon Saks after going out for lattes. An arched pink brow went up Sakura's forehead; how had she known that she and Ino went for coffee without her?

Karin's own brow rose in response and she nodded her head to beside the pinkette.

The lipstick on the Styrofoam cup.

She might be an occasional truant- but Karin was far from stupid.

Sakura's face reddened and a smirk began to form on the redhead's face as she pulled the bookworm to her feet, tumbling over the cup and nearly- nevermind- _dropping _Sakura's purse to the concrete. The remnants of three cups of sugar sluggishly dripped out of the cup while the remains of lipsticks, papers and relationships past rolled away from Sakura's anchor of a purse.

A particular set of squares captured Karin's focus -a long strand of photographs that had been taken at a booth, not more than a month prior. Her pale fingers picked them up with the delicacy of a mother holding her kittens and she gazed at it.

_Sasuke._

_Sasuke_ with his arm wrapped around Sakura and giving her a teasing kiss.

_Sasuke_'s hands over Sakura's eyes.

_Sasuke_ kissing Sakura.

Sakura.

[with _Sasuke_ in the background of course.]

Her heart ached; it panged with the sadness that he was no longer hers, that she wasn't good enough for him. The photos slid away and through her fingers as Sakura gently tugged them away, leaving the set of crimson eyes focused yet unable to truly see as they held back emotions.

Karin could see Sakura's face glowing as she looked at the pictures, the pale skin lighting up like the little Christmas lights coating their dormitory and Karin-_she just didn't have it in her to tell her._

Sakura babbled on and on about Sasuke, about how _wonderful _he was, about how _sweet_ he was, about how much he loved her and about how much he meant to her.

But of course, Karin knew that wasn't true, not completely at least. But as it stood, she was unsure if Sakura was ready to even know about Sasuke. It was more than obvious that Sakura didn't completely understand her knight; the bubbly tones of her childish giggles and smiles gave that away.

[Karin didn't notice the tighter than normal grip Sakura had on the photos or the slight black in her eyes as she spoke.]

Ignorance really was bliss wasn't it?

She gathered up all the fallen bits of Sakura's beauty, all the broken bits of knowledge that she was famed for carrying around and all the bitsy pieces of friendship that littered the purse before cramming it all back in. Pink could reorganize later.

Now was the time to find Blondie.

Karin was sure that she was up to no good- in the process of committing mischief most foul. More of that November chill blew through her hair and she gazed down at Sakura before yanking her to her feet, commanding her to leave the fallen coffee cup behind. The pristine campus could do with a little urban litter anyway.

Her friend looked to her in shock and Karin's resulting grin was large and sinister enough to scare even her cousin into shutting up and doing as she requested. Sakura was no exception.

With a terrified pinkette in tow, NOW she-they- could find Blondie and her mischief.

Oh, this was going to be fun.

[warning:run and hide].

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.[she'll still find you]

They had looked for nearly an hour and Sakura was becoming irate. She'd been yanked through courtyards and classrooms and forced into the boys' dorms- and she was _not _in the mood to have a certain bowl cut boy try and propose to her at eleven in the morning.

She'd missed her first class- advanced calculus- and though she knew it was going to be hell to make up, she was kind of glad she'd missed it. Not that she'd tell Karin that though. That'd make her far too happy for her own good.

But now? This was getting ridiculous.

Karin didn't seem to be giving up any time soon and Sakura had classes to attend. Looking to the insane woman she called 'friend', Sakura demanded to be set free of the hunt.

She didn't see what the big deal was; Ino would turn up on her own. She always did, though turning up on her own usually entailed drunkenness in the highest degree, emotional/social drama and short term memory loss, but Ino always did turn up on her own.

Now, all that needed to be done was to get Karin to allow her out of the back corners of the library they were investigating. This was no easy task, as Karin insisted that they check each and every row of books for sight of the blonde.

[Karin's insanity and ADHD ran deeper than even Naruto's.]

As she placed down book 755.32 G, she grabbed the redhead by the wrist and began tugging her out of the library until hearing giggles come from three rows ahead. They both stopped; they knew that giggle. It was the anthem for good times- it was Ino.

Crimson eyes flashed into the rows before flipping the roles and before Sakura knew it- she was the one being dragged throughout rows, weaving in and out of the three rows that separated them from their friend before seeing a tail of blonde hair-

and a spike of darker hair?

Her green eyes soaked onto the sight. Her best friend. Her boyfriend. Giggling and laughter. They didn't even notice her.

She stood there for what had to be an eternity, listening to Ino giggling and Sasuke just standing there, giving her that little smile of his before they finally noticed her. The giggling slowed as soon as the two caught sight of her-and Karin-, Sasuke's face slipping back into its frozen and stoic form while Ino took a second eternity to stifle those giggles of hers. Her eyes went down, hoping to see the dark blue of the carpeting before catching sight of intertwined fingers and it all faded into black.

Her senses were vaguely aware of someone, _someones-someone-him or her, _trying to tell her something, but she didn't hear it.

Sakura didn't want to hear it.

She didn't want to hear it, she didn't want to experience anything other than what she'd felt before this moment in time.

So she ran.

ran, ran, ran.

That chill ran down her spine again and as the November chill caressed her cheeks yet again, she clutched at her bag, holding it as her salvation. She didn't dare think- she didn't dare reflect on what she'd seen- what was there, what wasn't there, what might've been there and what might not have been.

Sakura didn't even care.

[Not at this exact moment at least. In a few hours-days-weeks? Give her time.]

Her running continued; the clatter of her floral wedges morphing from the clatter on pavement to the thudding of linoleum and she found herself standing at the door to one of her classes.

Japanese Literature.

This would be where she hid. She'd bury herself in books and the written and printed word and perhaps regain her common sense. Regain her sense and talk to them.

Both of them.


	3. judas

**title:** judas

**disclaimer:** disclaimed.

**notice**: this story is going to be placed on hiatus. i haven't been in a naruto mood lately and i think sections of this chapter show that. i will edit this, and revise it more when i feel i can do it better, but until then, enjoy this to the best of your ability. please review!

**n1**:also, note. this is a slight naruto/hell girl crossover. i didn't tag it hell girl since there are no direct references to it. i hope that solves a few questions.

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/#hecheated on me./ 'page 96 sensei? of course, my apologies, no-nothing's wrong.'/ she wanted him to just leave her alone-get out of her life./ he liked girls in red-no it was pink-no, now it was yellow. it had to be yellow./ 'oh jesus, jesus, please-it wasn't him...can't we take it back?'/

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_fuck- i was the wrongest of us all. Oh, fuck, don't even start-you don't know the cravings to mind fuck a girl- to have that power to make people sob shit over you._

_I wasn't Jesus damn it, can't I just be Judas-_

_didn't we learn from him?_

_Condemnation by others is fucked up- let me fuckin' do it myself. I didn't need you to tell me what I did was wrong; I knew it was wrong-but I did it anyway and hell, since all of you are coming with me, I'd replay it all and do it again._

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_iii.__**JUDAS**_

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She was back outside and the sky was no longer clear. Her book was in her palms and her eyes were grazing over it, but she wasn't really reading it. Her brain couldn't link meaning to the printed word in front of her; it wouldn't even recognize its importance.

Sakura really didn't care.

She sat there; she had been sitting there for _seconds-minutes-hours already_, but still she sat there, staring listlessly at the book's pages-

until he came.

His feet cracked the dead skeletons of leaves that still littered the concrete and that was all she saw as he approached her. The tips of his black shoes and the hems of his jeans. They could've belonged to anyone, but Sakura knew better. She knew that they belonged to him.

Just like she hoped to belong.

Sasuke didn't sit beside her; he just stood there with his hands in his pockets and looked down on her, his dark eyes unreadable and emotionless. The throbs of her heart deepened- she didn't know if she wanted to cry or if she just wanted him like she had had him just the day before.

Her eyes trailed up his form, green irises grazing over black, black, black and blacker man above her and she dug her white teeth into the pink skin of her lips just waiting for him to speak.

But he didn't.

She could feel it inside her; the anger, the sorrow, regret, dismay, and anger again- she could feel it festering within her bones, the aching to run and to hide, but the desire to purge herself of his touch, his influence and his _l_ove. Sakura knew it now; Karin had been far from living a lie- she'd been the correct one.

Their relationship was never going to last long- it was too late to say that it would forever be always.

He didn't speak, but he didn't have too. She knew what he was going say to her and she could feel what he wanted to say to her [though, it wasn't much and it wasn't pretty] and she didn't want him to say a word to her.

Sakura got her wish.

Sasuke's heels turned away leaving her downcast eyes to watch his shoes crack leaves on the ground as he left her there on the cement ledge, shivering and alone. The wind continued to blow, sending Sasuke-crushed leaves into her hair as it pushed strands of her pink hair to and fro.

[Kind of like what Sasuke used to do to her heart.]

She walked in no clear direction, her feet just moved and the rest of her body followed them as they trekked through parts of town, passing shops and cafes. Sakura saw her reflection in the windows of dress shops that were plentiful in the area, pausing as she saw the dress she had wanted to buy for Sasuke.

He loved red.

[Lies. He'd scorned both shades of red offered to him-crimson and pink. No, he must love yellow. Bright sunshine-y yellow.]

It was pulled off the rack, the last of the red dresses gone for good and she turned away as she saw it reach a blonde's hands. Sakura turned away from the store, her feet leading her off again, moving her in the direction of a small café. Sakura's eyes dropped; this was where she and he used to go when they felt like leaving campus for a change.

Her heart caught in her throat, catching sight of two heads in the back booth- _their back booth._ Two heads, one black the other blonde, both with foreheads tilted towards one another, the blonde laughing softly as their [oh, why even bother-_her_] companion looked away with a roll of his eyes.

Fogging glass disrupted her line of sight, Sakura's eyes noticing the rapid expansion of cloudy air on the once clear windowpanes and her hand came up to her heart, going first to her chest, before moving up to her throat.

Her feet picked up again, running off into the nearest alleyway with five fingers placed at the nape of her neck; Sakura needed darkness, she needed a place where she could cry out her collapsing heart out. A slight whimper escaped her lips as she hit the brick of the walls behind her. Five fingers still pressed into her skin leaving five purple bruises that she wished could cover all of her body.

At least she'd focus on that pain instead of this pain.

She threw her bag to the wall opposite of her, hearing a crack-snap-shatter that was oddly satisfying to hear and was more than content to leave it there [she could move on, quit college, drink too much and fuck enough], but from the edge of her eye, she saw something.

Bristles of brown tied with string.

Sakura's teeth clamped down on her lips, pupils darting to the left, right, to the right before moving to doll, her hands shaking as she reached out for it. It pricked her finger and she jerked her appendage back, still chewing on her lips as she examined the doll. She had questions-yes she did- but she pushed those to the back of her mind, running her fingers over the doll still, her skin getting caught in the rough straws.

The string rolled through two fingers, the red fabric teasing Sakura's own growing anger and jealousy.

[it wasn't like she was good enough for him, so why should she save him?]

A ding came from outside the alley, two sets of laughter following, and Sakura just couldn't. Their laughter- she knew it was them, it had to be them. It was them- shoved her heart deeper into her throat, lodging it there and choking her away.

Sakura couldn't breathe-

and she couldn't think either.

She lost her way for a fraction of a second, but that was all it took- for once it had passed and she came to her senses, the string and the doll were no longer connected. The skin on her chest- it began to burn with the brand that had been placed on her skin [the brand she had inflicted upon herself in her rage, her brand]- before cooling and leaving the black mark of Hell tattooed on her collar.

Sakura was a condemned woman now, but then again, so was Sasuke. She would rot, but he'd be there first. They could burn together, but she'd get the last laugh because he'd be burnt first.

[And it wasn't really her fault was it? If he hadn't cheated, then it'd be okay. ]

She'd get away with it.

She had too. She'd sold her soul to send him straight into the hands of Satan and nothing in this world could track her for that. Only God that that power, and well, he'd already caught her.

And he'd marked her for it.

Thinking these thoughts, she took a breath and stepped out of the alley, mentally preparing a false face of compassion and empathy to give to her former best friend about the immediate disappearance and probable [absolute] death of her [ex] boyfriend.

Oh Ino, this is for you too.

Her feet stopped on their journey, not seeing anyone on the sidewalk, except for the blonde before, the blonde and the black haired boy.

Sakura's choking stopped and her bright confidence at getting away with murder-well-earned paled alongside her face as the man turned around to be the eldest Uchiha.

Itachi.


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